Job loss slows, but still no job creation

The unemployment report produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the start of every month has a political goal: Present the economy in the best possible light. But the needs of the ruling class for accurate data force the BLS to publish more than it would prefer to reveal.

For decades, beginning in 1940, the unemployment rate served to summarize the job market. The rate measures how many people without jobs looked for one in the past four weeks. In October it was 10.2 percent, a sharp jump from 9.8 percent in September. For youth between the ages of 16 and 19, it was 27.6 percent. Black youth in the same age range had a 41.3 percent unemployment rate.

Beginning in 1995, the BLS started to publish the underemployment rate, which measures discouraged workers—those who have given up looking because no jobs are available—as well as workers who want full-time work but can only find part-time employment. This rate takes into account workers forced to take furloughs and those working catch-as-can for temp agencies.

Even taken together, the unemployment and underemployment rates don’t accurately and completely address workers’ relations to today’s job market.

In October, the national underemployment rate was 17.5 percent, while it was 17 percent in September. More than one of every six U.S. workers should have been considered unemployed in October.

From the fourth quarter of 2008 through the third quarter of 2009, California’s unemployment/underemployment was 19.6 percent, while Oregon’s was 20.1 percent and Michigan’s was 20.9 percent. (www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm)

The stock market went up based on the BLS report for October, which showed that, with “only” 190,000 jobs lost, job loss is slowing down. In this recession, which officially began in December 2007, 7.3 million jobs have been eliminated. To absorb all the new entrants into the labor force during this time, an additional 2.8 million jobs should have been created but weren’t. A total job deficit of 10.1 million means that even if job losses shrink to zero, unemployment will remain very high.

Jobs are so hard to find that 35.6 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for more than six months, a record in all the years that the BLS has been publishing this statistic.

Given that unemployment is running rampant, how are businesses maintaining production? A Nov. 5 BLS news release answers this question: “Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 9.5 percent annual rate during the third quarter of 2009. ... This was the largest gain in productivity since the third quarter of 2003.”

In other words, the bourgeoisie maintains production, and their profits, by increasing the exploitation of workers. The news release continued, “Output increased 4.0 percent and hours worked decreased 5.0 percent in the third quarter of 2009.”